Did You Know...
• Perfume is thousands of years old, with evidence of the first perfumes dating back to Ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia and Cyprus. The English word "perfume" comes from the Latin per fume, meaning "through smoke."
• Egyptians utilized scents in everything from religious ceremonies to burial preparations and even daily wear. The elites of Egyptian society would often adorn themselves with aromas.
• The world's oldest perfumes have been found on Cyprus by a team of archaeologists. The perfumes were scented with extracts of lavender, bay, rosemary, pine or coriander and kept in tiny translucent alabaster bottles.
• The earliest use of perfume bottles is Egyptian and dates to around 1000 BCE. The Egyptians invented glass and perfume bottles were one of the first common uses for glass. Prior to that, almost all perfume oils were kept in pottery.
• The first modern perfume, made of scented oils blended in an alcohol solution, was believed to have been made in 1370 at the command of Queen Elizabeth of Hungary and was known throughout Europe as Hungary Water.
